Waiting, Fading, Floating Away
by EbonyOsmosis
Summary: All he needed was a good Halloween party, some beer, and some candy. Oh, and good company for the scary movies, but this wasn't the kind he was expecting.


A/N: I swear to god, this story has been four halloween's in the making. I started it years ago, and every Halloween I say to myself, "Okay, this year I have to finish and actually post it!" But I never did. Not until now. You'd think it'd be much grander for taking four years to write, but enjoy anyway!

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><p>Waiting, Fading, Floating Away<p>

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><p>"Come on! We're gonna be late!"<p>

"Will you stop rushing me? Honestly, you're so impatient."

"But I wanna gooooo!"

"Stop your whining, it's annoying."

"I love you too Heero, with all my heart."

"Don't be a smartass."

"Heero, please? I wanna get there sometime within the next century."

"Patience."

"…Alright, I guess I'll sit down then."

"I'm ready."

"Oh for the love of god!"

"Why didn't you just go ahead without me, then?"

"Cause you're my ride, unfortunately."

The two teenagers continued to bicker on the way out the door. Well, Duo bickered, Heero shot him down at every turn. The two seemed to outside observers as if they annoyed each other to no end, which was technically true, but they were also best friends, and had been ever since grade school. They'd spent every day together from the time they met in fourth grade, even if it was for an hour a day. That of course meant spending Halloween together, trick-or-treating until they were sixteen and Heero refused to indulge in the childish activity. Then it became parties, and often times some flirting happened, but Duo never really knew where they stood in that department.

The bickering continued as Heero drove down the dark streets, navigating towards the edge of town that slowly morphed into countryside. They drove up a dirt road towards a piece of farm property, the building looming closer as they approached. The house was surrounded by cars of all sorts, mostly the beat-up hand-me-down kinds that tended to fall into possession of teenagers. Heero pulled his car into a spot at the end of the line at the edge of a field, shutting off the engine. As the boys got out and walked up the gravel driveway, they took a good look around the countryside.

"Well this place is spooky," Duo commented appreciatively, looking up at the old farm house and the strobe light emanating from within.

"They say someone died here," Heero added in. "But it might be a ploy to scare the local kids, or a stupid urban legend."

"Sounds even spookier," the brunette grinned, nudging Heero with his elbow. "C'mon, tell me the story."

"I don't know 'the story' per say, but apparently someone broke in one night. He was on the run from the police and losing ground, so he was planning to use the family as a bartering chip. The son was taken hostage in his bedroom upstairs, since he was the first one the guy came across. The family got out, but the criminal ended up strangling the kid before the police could stop him, and they say it was real brutal. Supposedly the house never sold because of the murder, since realtors have to disclose that kind of thing, and that's why the party is here every year," Heero finished, sounding completely unimpressed with what he considered a ghost story. "No one even bothers to try and sell it anymore, so it's more or less abandoned property."

"Well, true or not, it sure lends to the Halloween vibe," Duo said appreciatively, and they began walking up to the house. On any other night, it would have been just an old farmhouse, but in the dark of Halloween night with the wind howling through the trees and the heavy smell of rain and dead leaves, it presented a haunting air when coupled with the murder story.

In all actuality, the party wasn't likely to be at all scary. Few people these days took the holiday as a chance to be monsters and ghouls. Instead, Duo saw fairies, gaudy vampires, inflated sumo wrestlers, many famous people, and of course some slutty bar-maids. The only thing it would guarantee was beer and candy. It was too out of the way and most likely too scary for any little kids trick-or-treating, so Duo could safely assume that the partying teenagers inside would be pigging out on candy with no hindrance.

As they approached the open front door, they could hear pulsating music and raucous laughter. Duo heard a comment on his costume and turned to see Josh Bridges, the 'manager' of the party this year. "Hey man," he said, bumping fists with the slightly taller boy and accepting a beer. Heero gave Josh a nod and a quiet greeting, less acquainted with the senior than Duo was. Drink in hand, Duo threw an arm around his best friend's shoulders and dragged him into the pulsating strobe light.

"Heero my friend, this will be a good night."

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><p>As it turned out, it was a fairly decent Halloween party, if you ignored the drunken teenagers laughing and groping each other. There was the kitchen, which housed real food besides candy and beer for those who got peckish, the main part of the downstairs where the bulk of the party was, a study off in one corner where horror flicks were playing, and the upstairs for a quieter atmosphere.<p>

In fact, Duo had wandered off about an hour into the party to explore, looking through doors and windows to satiate his curiosity. He ended up going upstairs to the second landing, bypassing the room with games and heading down into the darkened corridor. Now that he was getting farther away from the music and the light, the hallway started to feel muted, like he'd walked into another world away from the party. The floorboards creaked under his steps, and without realizing it, his heartbeat started to pick up.

_Okay_, he thought to himself as he approached an old door at the end of the hall. _Definitely spooky. _The doorknob was tarnished and dusty, and he wondered how long it had been since the family had been here, how long since that poor kid had been murdered...

"Exploring?"

Duo jumped nearly a foot in the air in surprise at the voice behind him, whirling around with heart beating thunderously to see someone watching him in amusement. "Dude, you scared me," he breathed in a laugh. "Nice costume, buddy."

The guy was Asian looking, probably Chinese, with jet black haired pulled into a tight tail at the base of his neck, and dark brown eyes. His face and neck were done up in costume make-up to look like he was bleeding severely from major wounds, while the showing skin was pale. His clothes were torn and bloodied, and overall the effect it gave off to Duo was that of a car crash victim rising from the dead.

The guy looked down at himself before a small, muted smile quirked his lips. "Likewise," he said simply.

"Name's Duo," the brunette said, giving a friendly smile. "And I hung myself," he joked with a grin, holding up the end of the noose that hung from his neck.

The other guy chuckled softly. "I'm Wufei. And I'm dead," he added casually, amused by the exchange. "I think yours is the best costume I've seen here."

The braided boy wrinkled his nose, smirking. "Yeah, well, not much competition with all the fairies, pirates and superheroes."

Wufei chuckled again. "Point to you."

"How come you're not down at the party?" Duo asked curiously. "Don't care to get smashed and make a fool of yourself like everyone else?"

The Chinese boy shrugged one shoulder, looking unconcerned with the goings-on of the people downstairs. "I don't care for the crowd. What's your excuse?"

"I was just poking around, you know. This place is pretty cool," he added, grinning impishly. "All the ghost stories make it pretty spooky," he said, starting to head downstairs with Wufei following at a sedate pace. "But I think I've had enough for now, with the heart attack you gave me," he joked.

"All in holiday spirit," Wufei shot back with a calm smirk, hitting the bottom landing and leading Duo towards the main crowd of the party. "Where's your friend?" he asked casually.

"Heero?" the brunette repeated, suddenly remembering his grumpy best friend and wondering how the party was treating him. He turned to look around as they stood on the edge of the living room. "I dunno, he was..." Duo trailed off, because he'd turned to his left where Wufei had been only to find him gone, slipped off into the crowd somewhere. "Wufei?" he called, looking behind him and every which way, but the boy was gone. He shrugged offhandedly

He ended up finding Heero and some more of his friends in the movie room, where 28 Days Later was playing. "Oooh, fast zombies!" he said in glee, coming up behind the group and flopping down next to Heero on the couch.

"There you are," Quatre said in greeting, having come separately from Heero and Duo. "Where have you been?"

"I was poking around upstairs, then I met this guy with a killer costume," he said in explanation, launching into the fine details. "He had great make up, with all this blood around his neck and dark circles under his eyes. His name was Wufei, has anyone else met him?"

"Wufei?" Trowa asked curiously, furrowing eyebrows. "Not that I recall. Doesn't sound familiar."

He got negatives from the rest of the group as well, at which he shrugged again. "He'll show up, then I'll introduce you guys," he said offhandedly, making himself comfortable on Heero and settling in to watch the movie. They ate popcorn and discussed the finer points of zombie apocalypse survival, with the occasional laughter and some turning of stomachs at the more gruesome parts. Trowa indulged the blonde when Quatre suddenly turned away from the screen and engaged him in conversation, refraining from teasing him about the green in his gills.

They put on The Shining next, admiring Jack Nicholson's ability to turn into a fuckin' scary psychopath and the fashion style of the 80's. At one point while the main character's wife was getting upset, Relena made an annoyed sound. "God, she's so obnoxious. All she does is cry and whine the entire movie."

"Sound familiar, Princess?" Duo asked in a teasing voice, causing Relena to glare at him with a red flush.

"Shut up, or I'll drop kick your ass!" she threatened.

Duo snickered, turning to look up at Heero from where he was sprawled across the other boy's lap. "Heero, gimme some of your beer?" he asked, putting on the big puppy dog eyes for emphasis.

Heero's eyebrow quirked silently. "What beer? I'm driving, stupid."

Duo snorted and turned to look at the others. "Who wants to make a donation?"

He received either more answers of 'designated driver' or just plain 'get your own.' He growled in annoyance and sat up, using Heero as a crutch to stand up and purposefully pushing him roughly into the couch. "Fine, I don't want your nasty backwash beers anyway!" he said in his best high-and-mighty voice, leaving the room to head for the kitchen.

Duo stopped abruptly after rounding the corner as Wufei appeared before him. "Oh! There you are. I thought you'd left, since no one remembered seeing you."

The Chinese boy looked at him with an odd look, one that Duo couldn't decipher. "Come with me?" he asked quietly.

The brunette furrowed his eyebrows, forgetting about introducing the boy to his friends. The only conclusion he could come to based on the other boy's expression and body language was that something was wrong. "Yeah," he replied, walking away from the door to the movie room. "What's wrong?"

"I have to show you something," Wufei replied as explanation, weaving through the crowd easily and heading upstairs. Duo followed after the other teen with some confusion, trailing him up the steps and down the long hallway to the door at the very end, the one Duo had almost gone into earlier. Wufei opened the door, walking inside while Duo followed him. The brunette looked around the room with interest, taking in the bare, faded walls and lack of personal details. "This was my room," Wufei noted with muted amusement.

"Was?" Duo repeated, eyebrows furrowing once more. "What do you mean?"

"I spent most of my childhood here," Wufei continued, unconsciously rubbing at the fake wound around his neck. The make up smeared away... only to be replaced by more.

"Hey, you're bleeding!" Duo said in concern, stepping closer only to halt when the Chinese boy turned a calm smile to him.

"Don't worry," Wufei said. "It's been like that for some time."

"Huh?" the brunette wondered aloud, until Heero's voice spoke up from the back of his mind, very faint, but pointing out something important.

_They say someone died here._

He looked closer at the apparently fake blood, realizing that more was welling up from the area.

_The son was taken hostage in his bedroom upstairs._

He backed up against the door, which had swung shut during their exchange.

_The family got out, but the criminal ended up strangling the guy before the police could stop him._

The wound around Wufei's neck was raw on the edges of mangled flesh.

_The house never sold because of the murder, that's why the party is here every year._

"Oh my god," Duo whispered shakily, flattening himself against the door while he tried to turn the locked handle. "Oh my god."

Wufei turned to him with a calm look, the corners of his mouth twitching ever so slightly in a smile. "I've been alone for a long time, waiting for someone."

The braided boy felt his frozen insides twist in fear as the Chinese boy stepped closer. "No..." he breathed in alarm.

"Now I've found you, the only one who's ever been able to see me," Wufei said softly, standing close to the brunette. Blue eyes stared up at him, terrified.

Wufei smiled just slightly. "Won't you stay with me?"

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><p>Heero sighed in frustration as he picked his way through the passed out andor drunken teenagers littering the floor. "God damnit, has anyone seen Duo?"

"I haven't seen him in hours," Trowa said as he emerged from the kitchen. "He might have left with Hilde or Quatre, you know how he is about letting us know."

"That little shit," Heero growled, grabbing his sweater from the many coat racks positioned about the house. He threw the garment on and zipped it up. "I've scoured this whole house and I can't find him, he must have taken off."

"He'll turn up," Trowa said calmly, watching as people filtered out of the old farm house.

"For his sake, he'd better not," Heero mumbled crossly, heading for the exit.

The party was winding down, and the few designated drivers seemed to be taking on more than they'd anticipated as great groups of drunken party-goers ambled out to specific cars. Trowa walked with Heero out into the cold night, everything pitch black save for the meager light of the crescent moon. Crickets chirped from the woods around them as they walked, and they got into the Japanese boy's car where Relena was already waiting.

From upstairs, someone watched this all in the top story window, blue eyes calm and sated as he stared at the people down below. A moment later, he looked up as Wufei joined him. The Chinese boy gave another one of his calm, eerie smiles before linking their hands and staring outside.

Duo watched the car with his friends drive away into the night, wondering somewhere in his hazy mind why no one could see him.

_End._


End file.
